View full sizeLonnie Timmons III, The Plain DealerCoach Rodney Decipeda led the John Hay Hornets to an 8-2 record and a spot in the OHSAA football playoffs.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -This is a story about a high school football team that eats oatmeal before games and practices on a 50-yard clump of grass and dirt that once was a parking lot.

It's a story from a public school with some of the best and brightest in Cleveland's Senate Athletic League, and it's a story of a coach who nearly lost his job to a layoff.

Finally, it's a story of a team that has made the playoffs and a coaching staff determined to make men out of its players.

Welcome to the playoffs, John Hay, the school near University Circle. The Hornets, who qualified for the postseason in their fourth year playing a varsity schedule, will take on Ravenna today at 7 p.m. in a Division III regional quarterfinal at Collinwood Athletic Complex.

A few hours before the game, coach Rodney Decipeda will cook up the oatmeal.

Or as senior defensive back Michael Bradford said: "It's OK, but he needs to make it softer. At least we get some bananas, oranges and granola bars with it."

Bradford and Johnson both laughed about the oatmeal. It's one of the things players will talk about 10 years from now, when they think back on this 8-2 season, including a 7-0 record in the Senate.

Why oatmeal?

"I was looking for something that was good for the kids with the right kind of complex carbs," said Decipeda, 38. "It's cheap -- Quaker Oats. It's good for you. It's now our tradition."

Decipeda paused.

"Besides, I like oatmeal," he said.

'Academics first'

John Hay is unique to the Senate because it's a magnet school. Students must apply, have a grade-point average in the 3.0 area and interview before being admitted. Discipline is strong; fights are few.

Players don't wear their jerseys to school on game day.

"It's academics first," Johnson said.

But it's also the Senate, where athletic budgets are squeezed and booster clubs are loyal but not large.

The team practices on a field next to the school, where there are no goal posts.

"It's an oval," Decipeda said. "To practice extra points, we have two kids stand apart like the goal post. We have a straight-on kicker, Jeremy King. I tried to find one of those old square-toed shoes those kickers used. Couldn't do it. But Jeremy is the best kicker we've ever had. His extra points really look like extra points."

Despite teaching science in the Cleveland school system for 10 years, Decipeda received his layoff notice last spring. Yes, the cutbacks had climbed that high on the seniority list. He was ready to take a third-shift job at Cleveland Clinic and do some substitute teaching during the day -- all so this father of three could keep coaching the football team he helped start when John Hay reopened in 2008 after a renovation.

"Right before school opened, I got called back," he said. "It was a relief."

'Our year'

This year's Senate schedule was also a relief.

Because the Senate has nine teams, it plays a seven-week league schedule that varies from year to year. This season, John Hay didn't play powerhouse Glenville.

"This was our year," Decipeda said.

John Hay faces mostly Division I teams in league play, which provide more points in the computer poll that's used to determine the playoff field.

The Hornets buzzed through their Senate schedule, outscoring the opposition, 268-48, and sharing the league title with Glenville. Only once did they allow more than eight points, and their closest contest was a 20-8 victory against John Adams. Their two losses were to Berea and Toledo Rogers.

"I think the key for us was beating Kennedy," said senior Carlin Ray.

That was a 27-7 victory against John F. Kennedy, which had been to the playoffs the previous two seasons.

Ray leads the Hornets with 17 touchdowns, as he's rushed for 877 yards and a stunning 12.2-yard average per carry. He also leads the team with 32 catches. Decipeda calls Ray (5-9, 160 pounds) "the most athletic player that I've coached here."

Ray also has a 3.7 grade-point average and is taking some courses at Cleveland State.

Sophomore quarterback Mylik Mitchell has thrown for 1,732 yards and 20 touchdowns, with four interceptions.

Assistant coach Ernest Priester raves about Jaiwan Woodley, who broke his collarbone early in the season.

"He was supposed to be out for the year," Priester said. "He's a senior, and when that happens, they tend to quit the team. But he was there at practices and meetings, and he was teaching Latif [Hughes] to play fullback -- Jaiwan's position. That's leadership."

A student with a 3.6 GPA, Hughes has rushed for 849 yards and is a force at middle linebacker on defense. Woodley has been cleared to play against Ravenna.

Priester is a 16-year veteran of Cleveland schools. During the day, he's a security guard at John Hay. After school, he is the team's offensive coordinator. He also played football for John Hay before it became a magnet.

"At first, they didn't even want a football team when we came back," he said. "Four years later, we're Senate champs. That says a lot."

Decipeda remembers his first team having 40 kids, "and some had no idea how to put on shoulder pads and football pants."

Now there are 58 in uniform. Athletes such as Royce Griffin are determined to play. He's coming back from a broken femur in 2010 that kept him out for all of 2011. Now he's a senior defensive back.

The leader of the defense is Johnson, who has a 4.5 GPA and 22.5 sacks.

"My mother [Darlene Allmon] went back to school and got her master's in criminal justice [and works for the probation department]," he said. "I'm her only child. I saw what she did at school, and I knew that I could do it."

Lessons in life

While none of John Hay's players has received scholarship offers from Division I programs, several will be heading to college thanks to their academics. Decipeda said former Hornet stars Kato Mitchell and Jonathan Rodriguez went to Ohio State on the Young Scholars Program.

Wesley Greiner played for the Hornets last season. He's now at Stanford and on the rugby team. Robert Thompson received an academic scholarship to Allegheny College, where he also plays football. Chris Collins went to Toledo on a football scholarship this fall, the Hornets' first Division I recruit since the program resumed in 2008.

Part of each Thursday practice is devoted to values-based talks often coming from the book, "InSideOut Coaching," by Joe Ehrmann.

"I like them," Johnson said. "Growing up without a father, the coaches are like a father to me because they talk about things like what it means to be a man."

He said the recent session that meant the most to him was "about respecting women, how we never should call them bad names -- no matter what. The coaches make you think."

Bradford, who has a 3.8 GPA, said a session about bullying and sticking up for those in need resonated with him.

"When people are picking on kids who are not like us, what are we going to do?" he asked. "We need to stick up for the mentally challenged."

A former assistant football coach and chaplain at Slippery Rock University, Decipeda said the mentoring and teaching sessions are more important than what happens on the field.

Decipeda, who is of Filipino descent, played football at Chardon and Kenyon College. The inner-city was a different experience for him when he began teaching 11 years ago at Lincoln-West. He has been at John Hay since 2008.

"Our mission statement is that we're here to rescue boys and build them into men of excellence," he said. "Some people don't like the 'rescue boys' part, but we all needed to be rescued at some point, and every male needs to learn what it means to be a man -- especially in this society, where there aren't as many fathers in the homes as we'd like."

He said players had a serious discussion about manhood and how it moved from "sexual conquests and being a star on the field" to a deeper look at what men really should be about.

"I doubt many of them have every really thought about it," he said. "And even we coaches need to be reminded of what it means to be a man."

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.